The Scarlett Letters

The Scarlett Letters
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages : 535
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781589798731
ISBN-13 : 1589798732
Rating : 4/5 (732 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Scarlett Letters by : John Wiley

Download or read book The Scarlett Letters written by John Wiley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-10-08 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One month after her novel Gone With the Wind was published, Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for fifty thousand dollars. Fearful of what the studio might do to her story—“I wouldn’t put it beyond Hollywood to have . . . Scarlett seduce General Sherman,” she joked—the author washed her hands of involvement with the film. However, driven by a maternal interest in her literary firstborn and compelled by her Southern manners to answer every fan letter she received, Mitchell was unable to stay aloof for long. In this collection of her letters about the 1939 motion picture classic, readers have a front-row seat as the author watches the Dream Factory at work, learning the ins and outs of filmmaking and discovering the peculiarities of a movie-crazed public. Her ability to weave a story, so evident in Gone With the Wind,makes for delightful reading in her correspondence with a who’s who of Hollywood, from producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, and screenwriter Sidney Howard, to cast members Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel. Mitchell also wrote to thousands of others—aspiring actresses eager to play Scarlett O’Hara; fellow Southerners hopeful of seeing their homes or their grandmother’s dress used in the film; rabid movie fans determined that their favorite star be cast; and creators of songs, dolls and Scarlett panties who were convinced the author was their ticket to fame and fortune. During the film’s production, she corrected erring journalists and the producer’s over-the-top publicist who fed the gossip mills, accuracy be damned. Once the movie finished, she struggled to deal with friends and strangers alike who “fought and trampled little children and connived and broke the ties of lifelong friendship” to get tickets to the premiere. But through it all, she retained her sense of humor. Recounting an acquaintance’s denial of the rumor that the author herself was going to play Scarlett, Mitchell noted he “ungallantly stated that I was something like fifty years too old for the part.” After receiving numerous letters and phone calls from the studio about Belle Watling’s accent, the author related her father was “convulsed at the idea of someone telephoning from New York to discover how the madam of a Confederate bordello talked.” And in a chatty letter to Gable after the premiere, Mitchell coyly admitted being “feminine enough to be quite charmed” by his statement to the press that she was “fascinating,” but added: “Even my best friends look at me in a speculative way—probably wondering what they overlooked that your sharp eyes saw!” As Gone With the Wind marks its seventy-fifth anniversary on the silver screen, these letters, edited by Mitchell historian John Wiley, Jr., offer a fresh look at the most popular motion picture of all time through the eyes of the woman who gave birth to Scarlett.


The Scarlett Letters Related Books

The Scarlett Letters
Language: en
Pages: 535
Authors: John Wiley
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-10-08 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One month after her novel Gone With the Wind was published, Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for fifty thousand dollars. Fearful of what the studio might
The Scarlett Letter
Language: en
Pages: 154
Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-12-02 - Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-centur
The Scarlett Letters
Language: en
Pages: 248
Authors: Florence Rome
Categories: Music
Type: BOOK - Published: 1971 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Scarlett Letter a Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Language: en
Pages: 330
Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1852 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Scarlet Letter
Language: en
Pages: 234
Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 1992 - Publisher: Wordsworth Editions

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"'Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me.' With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after a two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not